Inside the House
If you missed the first merry, merry post, you might want to go back and just read the introduction if nothing else. Because this post will be referring to getting ready for Christmas in 2016 and the first post gives you the background info on that.
Most of the new things I added this year, were to the inside of the house.
This is our new tree we purchased last year on sale after Christmas at Dillards. Somehow it didn’t look so big at Dillards. 🙂 Thankfully it is prelit, but we still had to get a ladder to decorate it. It took 2 days to fluff, shape and decorate it. Whew!!! We have 10 ft ceilings and it ended up being just a few inches from the top. Luckily, I had enough ornaments to cover it.
We don’t do the real tree thing. We tried that. After several years of having sap on our presents, pine needles in the carpet, leaning trees, dying trees and trees falling over with me hauling them to the curb 2 days before Christmas … then putting up my artificial tree. I gave up and never looked back! 😀
I bought most of these ornaments, but I also got a quite a few of them playing Dirty Santa at Bunco. And sometimes it gets dirty. 😉 jk We have so much fun!!!I don’t have a theme for my tree, but there is a color pallet. All the ornaments are red, green, white, or gold for the majority. You won’t find any pink, blue, turquoise, etc.
Remember that awesome shop we stopped at in Cave Spring, GA on vacation? I got the red ornament there and another just like it for Dirty Santa at Bunco. The “Love” ornament you see at the edge of the photo is from 1981. That is when Chris and I got married …. awwe! 🙂 And those awesome gold spiral ornament hangers can be found at Hobby Lobby. I love those!
That holly ornament is new. Got it on sale at Pier 1. It’s part of the European Collection.
I have a gold star theme going, but last year I decided I wanted to add more red on my tree. So I think I picked up this ornament this year in a 3 pack at Hobby Lobby where everything was 50% off.
These cuties sit in the chair by the tree. A teacher friend gave me that pillow YEARS ago and I never fail to think of her when I pull it out each year. Thanks, Christie, if you’re reading. 🙂
When my daughter was little, we started her a Dickens village. The tradition was together, we’d purchase her a piece for her village each year. When she got married, she had a good sized village. I, of course, had nothing. 🙂 So I started from scratch to start my own village. This is as big as it can get because I don’t want to give up any more space. Last year Carol gave me the pieces I’d given her, plus her trees. So I’m happy with what I have, but I would like to add some more people. The kids that come through love it. I just have a time keeping their little fingers out of the snow. 🙂
This little basket sleigh holds my Christmas cards.
My elf is one of my most favorite purchases for the season. My sister invited me on a tour of homes and one of the homes we toured had a BEAUTIFUL elf. She jokingly called it her “elf on a shelf”. That was at least 2 or 3 years ago and I’ve been on the hunt for my own elf since then. Well, about 2 weeks ago, Carol came down to go shopping and we hit Hobby Lobby. I found this elf 50% off and he was the last one!! I couldn’t wait to add him to my mantle!
This reindeer is also a new addition. Won him at Bunco!
This reindeer pillow is another new purchase that I got on sale at Pier 1. I decided that I wanted to add some Christmas pillows to swap my every day pillows and red seemed to be the perfect color. They only had the one that I liked and once I got it home I decided that one was just enough. I didn’t need 3. Red is the perfect compliment to the brown leather.
This table was just a temporary setup. I used some things I had left over from Thanksgiving and incorporated some of my Christmas decorations. But the longer it sat there, the more I liked it, so it became my Christmas table. To incorporate the burlap runner, I used natural linen napkins in place of the white ones I usually use. I did later add a glass tray for the mugs.
The dishes are Nikko Happy Holidays pattern. These are the collector plates and the
silver belonged to my mom.
The mugs are also a new addition. I saw on Pinterest where someone was collecting vintage mugs to use for decorations. As a kid, we had similar type mugs, so I decided that I wanted a collection of them to have for my grandkids to use to drink hot chocolate from. So I ran across the 2 on the right at Cracker Barrel and the 2 on the left on sale at Hobby Lobby. They also had some for $2 at Walmart. Now I want a cute tray to display them on.
Mr. & Mrs. Claus salt & pepper shakers that seem to drive kids crazy. My daughter hated that they were kissing and would always move them away from each other. 🙂 And the same thing happened with the 8 yr old girl from across the street this past weekend. No PDA allowed!
And finally, there were gifts under the tree! At this point, it was Christmas Eve day and I still wasn’t finished wrapping, but I had to stop for a while and cook since we had family coming over that night.
You may have noticed that our Christmas gifts are color coordinated. There is a reason behind my madness. 🙂 When my daughter was young, she always wanted to count how many gifts she had and/or shake them, etc. So instead of her having to go through every gift checking the name tags I started wrapping all her gifts in red plaid paper. That way she knew exactly which gifts were hers and she’d leave the rest alone. When I started doing this, I also quit using name tags on her gifts, as there was no longer a need for them. Then when she got married, I started wrapping all her and her husband’s gifts in white paper and still didn’t put name tags on their white gifts. They had fun deciding who each of the gifts belonged to. I wrapped everyone else’s gifts in gold paper and used red or gold bows on everyone’s packages which I hand made. Then when Dakota came along I started wrapping all her gifts in red and now all Gunner’s gifts are wrapped in green. (John Deere green which is perfect for him. 😉 ) I found a place online that I buy the paper in commercial rolls. It’s a bit of money to lay out at one time, but the paper is really thick, I like the way it looks and I don’t have to run around hunting paper. A roll of paper lasts me usually two or more years … depends on how much I wrap. I accidently bought a HUGE roll for Gunner and I might not have to buy him any more till Middle School! Just a reminder though … I do have to remember to check my wrapping paper ahead of time and order what I’m going to need. I forgot this year and waited a little too late and fortunately this company is pretty quick with their shipping … but I wasn’t THAT late. 😉 So add “buy wrapping paper” to your calendar.
Santa comes to my house, so I have to make sure we’re ready for him. Dakota left me Reindeer Food with instructions to put it out along with milk and cookies for Santa. She made the cookies, but I think he’d probably already over done it on the sugar. A man can only eat so many cookies. 🙂
This was their bright and shiny faces Christmas morning!
Hard to get a 2 year old to stand still for a photo op.
Santa brought her just what she asked for!
Gunner wouldn’t have anything to do with Santa this year,
but he was tickled pink with his motorized 4 wheeler.
Decorating, gifts and family is the joy of the season.
The birth of Christ, who gave his life for us, is the reason for Christmas.
Let’s enjoy the first, but not forget the latter.
merry, merry Post 3 … Christmas Yummies!
Leave a Reply